Melissa Coombs bet on college. She took out loans, moved to Maine from Connecticut, and spent four years earning a bachelor's degree in marketing. After graduation, she moved home and started looking for a job.

"I actually ended up working at a gas station, and realized, after about eight months of doing that and still not finding anything, that I needed to do something," she says.

Fortunately, Coombs had attended a university with a "guaranteed jobs program." If graduates fail to land a job in their field within a year of graduating, or fail to make a livable income within that period, the school will pay off some of their federal loans, or offer free masters courses to help them get a graduate degree.

Coombs took the graduate classes, and landed a job in her field.

These types of safety nets from colleges are becoming increasingly popular due to the high cost, and financial risk, of pursuing a degree.

Jon Marcus, higher education editor at The Hechinger Report, says college is often sold as a sure bet to job security and higher earnings. But in reality, "the success rates are really low," he says.

He says there's a bipartisan push in Washington to hold colleges and universities more responsible for students who default on their debt. But some higher education lobbyists argue that forcing colleges to have a stake in student debt would increase costs that would ultimately be passed on to students. It could also make colleges reluctant to accept high-risk students.

Still, some colleges are choosing to offer students guarantees, and many students like the idea. Melissa Coombs says the guarantee was a big factor in the college she chose.

"If I was to do it again, I would probably do the same thing," she says.

On this episode of the podcast, we're talking about colleges that promise a good job, or your money back.

Educate is a collaboration with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization that focuses on inequality and innovation in education.